Wednesday, April 28, 2010

What Are the Mets Doing in First Place?

Yes, it's April. The season is very young. But I'm shocked to see the Mets in first place today.

That's right. After a doubleheader sweep of the Dodgers, the Mets are a half game up on the Phillies and leading the division after going 8-1 over their last 9 games. Wow. What happened? I'll tell you what happened, the stars aligned.

The Mets have received some unbelievable pitching from their starters and the bullpen over the last 9 games. I do believe that Mike Pelfrey has turned the corner. I do believe we have a solid bullpen. What I don't believe is that Perez/Niese/Starter to be named later will sustain this level of performance throughout the season. They'll have their ups and downs and we saw that last night in Oliver Perez.

I also think the bullpen is going to be overworked if they continue to pitch in this many appearances so at some point we're going to need a few starters to make it past the 5th inning.

The bats look alive though. Bay is starting to find his groove. Wright got his 1,000th career hit and drove in a couple RBIs. Reyes looks very comfortable. And we don't even have Beltran back yet.

I'm completely surprised at this turnaround, but it goes to show you that good pitching can make all the difference. Now they just need to maintain this performance level for 5 more months.